hora – Member

Sex. Lots of it. Oodles of it, sweaty, Olympic-style stuff.

Now

There are clouds in the sky there, you may be lucky 😉

Frequent mountain biking
Motorbiking further away than the office
Holidays to non-family-friendly places
Cinema
Theatre

We do have a good time doing different things with the children, though, and I am well on the way to becoming my Dad as he was in the early 80s -I even find myself saying the same things… 😆

-I must have sub-consciously stored-up “Things that Dads say” in my memory for decades.

Disappointingly,

we’ve still not been snowed-in (2cm last week not really enough),
the army haven’t been out on the streets,
nor indeed have we suffered any sort of -20°C ARCTIC BLAST!!.

More importantly, the Princess Diana conspiracy has still not been admitted.

I demand a refund from the Daily Express!

Very sad to hear about this.

It brought back the memories. I was (peripherally) involved in an incident when somebody fell a long way from the top of the same mountain a few years ago. The casualty thankfully survived and recovered from that incident.

The news coverage of what is actually normal, fairly temporary, winter weather is quite embarrassing.

cynic-al – Member

I need to get a heater to keep one room a bit warmer than the rest of the house.

Are the elec ones all as efficient as another?

In most electrical goods some energy is lost and dissipated as (mostly) heat. In a heater this isn’t a problem.

trail_rat – Member

au contrare aristotle

its more having seen how molgrips reacts in other threads.

??

Anyhow, one takes one’s chances in life and one doesn’t always need to consult a www forum. Google is quite useful

Snowmageddon has stopped for afternoon tea here. We’re awaiting the 1 metre depth to arrive before home time.

I once went on a bike ride and did not complete a risk assessment or method statement beforehand.

I reported myself to the HSE, of course.

Some of the people posting here would presumably evacuate their bowels at the mere sight of the roads and driving in some other countries…. 😆

I’m surprised by some of the views on this thread. I’d have expected rufty-tufty trail centre riders to be more up for it.

I once drove along the A66 across the Pennines (in a Micra on normal tyres). It had snow cover and was closed just after we passed the gates. The snow wasn’t deep or drifting though. Presumably Trunk roads have certain standards that are required to be maintained.

give it a whirl then! You don’t need a www forum to tell you if you’re sure about it.

Has nobody else ever crossed a flood or a snowed-up road?

You could give it a whirl and be fine, but probably wouldn’t get much sympathy if you got stuck.

deviant – Member
I like this weather but hate the disaster type coverage on the news.

It provides them with safe, easy, local “news” to report on, looking serious stood next to an A-road in a Berghaus jacket.

Snow! In Europe! In January!

Whatever next?! Rain in summer? Maybe a day or so of sunshine in July?

TABLOID BRITAIN SHOCKA

To illustrate what light snow looks like for those who are unsure, they’ve used clip art ….of frost.

buzz-lightyear – Member

Not sure what the army can do about snow. Shoot snowmen?

It was in the Express, ignore it!

Walk home

Warrington:

It’s going to get heavy later on, apparently.

ChunkyMTB – Member
Front of office..
Have another read…

Take another photo to show the developments?

…or have the aliens attacked?

ChunkyMTB – Member

Starting to snow hard now…

Front of office..

More worryingly than that slight dusting of snow and seemingly very clear roads is that

ALIENS APPEAR TO BE INVADING IN FLYING SAUCERS!

Daily Express:

“ARMY ON STANDBY AS UP TO 12INS OF SNOW WILL BLANKET BRITAIN
Army on standby as up to 12ins of snow will blanket Britain

THE Army was on standby last night as the heaviest snowfall for years threatened to plunge the country into a full-scale national emergency.”

We’re Dooomed!!! 😆

“SEVERE WEATHER FORECAST ON FRIDAY” has been on the M60 matrix boards all week.

Not particularly SEVERE yet, though. Think a dusting of icing sugar.

That ^^^ doesn’t look too deep. Are the roads clear?

so far there’s only about 5mm on the higher bits of North Manchester. The roads were all clear on the bike commute this morning.

News Reporters will probably be stood outside Media City announcing the end of the world on the lunchtime news though.

It might get worse later, but if it stays as it is your kids may be able to attend their concert.

We had a dusting (~5mm on grass and paths, but roads are clear) overnight in the western & northern Manchester areas.

Bike commuting was pleasant, but uneventful this morning.

In anticipation of an ABSOLUTE SNOWMAGEDDON SHOCKA!!! later, I’m hoping that the trusty Commuter cyclocrosser will get me home more quickly and more pleasantly than a car.

Nicholas Cage(b.Nicolas Kim Coppola) is the same in almost every film. “Lord of War” was quite good although, as above, his ‘acting’ possibly suited the role rather than him moulding himself into it like Daniel Day Lewis or Christian Bale might have done.

…or one that doesn’t see fit to invest in Scandinavian-style snow precautions for a couple of days a year in most areas …some years?

“ARCTIC BRITAIN’S COLD BLASTS!” are only a “news-worthy” gift to the “news” outlets because they are relatively rare. I wonder how much SNOW MAYHEM! there will actually be tomorrow?

Fair Enough. The response seems quite positive.

mikewsmith – Member
The mail seems to be taking on the metro for lack of actual news content.

Same publishing group.

I am also slightly irritated by people quoting (correctly or otherwise) obviously biased/mostly-untrue news stories without stopping to actually think about it first.

I can’t remember buying a news paper recently mostly pick them up at airports etc but mostly full of opinion rather than news.

“news” is readily available elsewhere/everywhere, opinion pieces/journalists are more specific to a particular newspaper.

As almost any news item involving a subject about which I have some knowledge is full of errors, I take all news sources with a good helping of this:

ps. The Express is probably worse than the nasty Daily Mail, in a sort of pre-school level, reactionary bigotry kind of way.

Having gone out and bought a Unimog with winter tyres on the basis of the DOOM predicted by The Express (I’m now also concerned about a conspiracy in the Diana case) and The Mirror, we’ve not had a single flake of snow here on the Western edge of the Manchester conurbation. I went for a run this morning and the pond in the park had iced-over overnight -only the second time that it has iced-over this winter.

Maybe we’ll have ARCTIC BRITAIN! tomorrow?

ps. I hope that the council haven’t wasted lots of my money on Alpine snow clearing equipment.

less wheel, more tyre.

chiefgrooveguru – Member
Can I have a 5-door hatchback wife-approval-friendly version please?

I’m also waiting for that version and for it to appear on the low tax, ecomotive/blue-motion diesel company car list. It wasn’t on there last time I checked, though…

chiefgrooveguru – Member

I love the concept!

Regarding tyre size, 215/45 17″ is only small compared to current marketing/styling led tyre choices.
Marketing bs for the ignoranti. It seems to be working though…

The classic Civic Type R wears 205/45 17″ tyres, weighs ~80kg more than a GT86, had a higher CoG, similar power and I’ve never heard anyone bemoan its cornering ability.

But that was sooooooooo last decade…. Nowadays 250bhp turbo, 19″ rims and rock hard suspension are must-haves in a hot hatch. Anything else is, of course, too compliant, comfortable and dangerously slow …for a bad driver.

wurzelcube – Member

I had the “mis-fortune” to be taken for a quick blast in a GT86 with my mate driving… frightened the sh*t out of me on country lanes, feels quicker than the paper statistics suggest and stuck well to the road (fortunately).

That’s an important point. Once a car has a level of overall performance that is the maximum can be practically/legally/safely used on the roads of the UK (and anywhere, other than top speed on unlimited highways in few countries), more is not necessarily important. A Megane 265 might be ultimately quicker around a track or along a closed tarmac special stage, but it might not be as pleasant, responsive or satisfying to drive on the roads and how often the maximum horsepower be used? (on a related note, I ride a 600cc bike that will reach a ton fairly quickly compared to most cars and I’m very often rolling off the throttle before completing an overtake …1000cc road bikes with twice the power are available…. Awesome, but much use when we’re all limited by the same visibility?)

Other than www/pub bores, who cares which is theoretically “faster”?

To be honest, very few people these days are actually interested in cars -beyond image, gadgets, mpg and tax band.

beardo – Member
As for performance, its not slow but its not going to rip your arms off.

I should hope not, if the seat stays in place under acceleration 😉

nicko74 – Member
How do these things ALWAYS get onto the subject of Hora and his manhood?!

Because Hora always seizes the opportunity to mention his manhood?

The GT86 is like a modern interpretation of one of these:

…no bad thing.

failedengineer – Member

That principle of being able to stop in the distance you can see always makes me smile, especially when applied to bikes in fast blind corners.

It’s certainly something I think about, especially whilst I’m riding a motorbike (I may have been a bit too exuberant on 4 wheels in the past), although some people do seem quite, er, “relaxed” about it.

Hitting a stationary van in the middle of the road around a blind bend wouldn’t be much fun.

Feel and feedback for maintaining momentum across country are more important than overwhelming acceleration and a rock hard ride. In most cars, overtaking the typical columns of traffic is hindered by its size/width. A few more horses don’t make *that* much difference.

I like driving cars and riding motorbikes enthusiastically, but there are limits on the roads -visibility, legality …and discretion. Fast bikes, fast cars (and posh mtbs) won’t make up for a poor operator.

One of the joys of mountain biking is that you often can ride “on the edge” quietly and without running the risk of prosecution or injuring others.

I like the idea of the GT86.

Fantombiker – Member

I was looking at them as well. Not going to go for it because it is underpowered.

Do you need/use more power or is it just a case of “because I can”?

I used to be in the “more power!” camp for cars and motorbikes, but I’ve seen the light and realise that ride, handling (and tyre & suspension setup) are more important.

And I’m sure the Toyota has a lot to recommend it to serious drivers like the boxer burble and RWD. But in a market place dominated by 0-60 and BHP one-upmanship it might not get the recognition it maybe deserves.

Indeed.

0-60 and bhp do not tell the whole story, but can be easily quantified. Reeling off stats requires no skill or understanding.

In the old days people would talk about these things in the pub, but nowadays www forums (like this) are the “pub” discussions, with everybody an expert.

The www view of the GT86 is:
It rides on Prius tyres (whether they are adequate and fit for purpose doesn’t seem to matter), needs a turbocharger, has a funny clock and needs to cost less.

richmtb – Member

I think they look great, and its a brilliant idea to restrict the width of the rear tyres to make them a bit more lively

From Autocar:
“That 215/45 R17 Michelin Primacys leave the GT86 looking under-tyred is a sign of the times. Yet at the track, the GT86 was still capable of holding 0.99g through corners on the dry handling circuit, on a steady throttle”

Maybe many other cars are OVER-tyred these days?

I would suggest that it is not too slow for anything in particular.

A lot of cars now have an excess of straight-line performance, and most people don’t drive cars quickly -Most people people tootle about (and many of the others confuse “erratically”/”Furiously” with “quick”). Image is all.

Zulu-Eleven – Member

Yeah, but with something like 300 million guns in circulation, what good do you think a ban would do anyway Aristotle?

Ban them, and the only people the law would effect would be law abiding ones – the genie is more than out of the bottle.

tell you what – why do you think that all the mass citizen killings happen in gun free zones?

We covered this earlier on ^^ .

The historical availability and glorification of personal firearms has resulted in large numbers in circulation, legally and otherwise (many of the mass murderers seem to be otherwise law-abiding individuals, using legally-held weapons. This may not always be the case though)

I’d suggest that something needs to be done to begin changing the culture. It may take decades, but probably not. It would, however, require a large enough portion of the population to be convinced…

Speaking as somebody who lives in a country that does not routinely arm Police officers, I’d suggest that the ultimate answer to the problem is not to arm primary school teachers or every other member of the population.